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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Hot Chocolate!

Café de Flore Chocolat Chaud, watercolor on paper, 9" x 11 1/2"

It's that time of year. Not just holiday time, but time to break out the hot chocolate! It's COLD out there!!! I like to drink hot chocolate everyday of the year, but lately it feels more appropriate...

I've never seen chocolat chaud served this way before...but at Le Bonaparte café on rue Jacob, this is how it comes with hot milk ready to mix in. Obviously it was pretty good! All gone...Café Le Select at 99, blvd. du Montparnasse, serves a mean cup of chocolate - nice and thick. Couldn't you just dive into this chocolate pool..? I met up with Chuck for petit déjeuner at his Hotel de L'Abbaye Saint-Germain, before we went off to the Salon du Chocolat. I snagged a little bar of soap, but I would have much prefered to add this cup and saucer to my collection...perfect for still life painting :)NOT a cup of hot chocolate, but one of my favorite works of surrealist art. Swiss artist, MeretOppenheim created "Breakfast in Fur" in 1936 when she was just 23. Well it looks warming...Here's a nice small caféoff rue Cassette, where you can get that cup of chocolate. I make myhot chocolate by mixing 2-3 tablespoons of as many brands (French/Swiss preferred natch) as I have on hand into the cup. Sometimes I add 1 teaspoon of cocoa plus some couverture chips. Then add hot milk heated 2 minutes in the microwave, stir et voilà. Bon appetite!

24 comments:

The cup with the melted chocolate swirling around-- I would have my finger in it before I poured milk!! Do you think they would kick me out of the cafe for such a faux pas?I could see your posts in Paris travel guides...

!!! Reminds me of Christmas 04 in Paris... Cold, wet, the lights...and walking down narrow rue & into a crowded cafe.. a friend said to me "you must try a hot chocolate". I was jet lagged,(Sydney to Paris non stop.), She looked gorgeous..

It was surreal.. my head was swimming...I tasted this drink...

I am sitting in my office this morning and I can taste it again. (and the feelings..)